Spinal Cancer: Guidelines For Diagnosis Unsupported In Patients With Lower Back Pain
A new systematic review published in The Cochrane Library has raised doubts as to the effectiveness of "red flag" indicators at both identifying and excluding cancer in patients with lower back pain. The authors of the review concluded that most individual red flags were poor at diagnosing spinal malignancies and call for further studies focused on combinations of red flags...
Home Aerobic Walking Program As Effective As Clinical Therapy In Treating Lower Back Pain
Lower back pain is a common complaint, and treatment often requires many hours of physical therapy over multiple weekly clinic visits - a costly commitment. Now Dr...
Smoking Cessation Improves Pain In Spine Patients
Smoking is a known risk factor for back pain and disc disease. In a new study presented at the 2013 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS), researchers reviewed smoking cessation rates and related pain in 6,779 patients undergoing treatment for spinal disorders with severe axial (spine) or radicular (leg) pain...
Surgery For Compressed Nerves Improved By Nerve Mapping Technology
Nerve mapping technology allows surgeons to determine whether surgery has been effective for relieving pressure from compressed nerves, which often function poorly and cause sciatica or pain and weakness in muscles supplied by the nerve. In a small study involving 42 patients at Henry Ford Hospital, lead author and orthopaedic surgeon Stephen Bartol, M.D...
One Specific MicroRNA Appears To Promote Tumor Growth And Cancer Spread
Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center have determined that the overexpression of microRNA-155 (miR-155), a short, single strand of ribonucleic acid encoded by the miR-155 host gene, promotes the growth of blood vessels in tumors, tumor inflammation, and metastasis. As a therapeutic target, miR-155 could potentially provide a new avenue of treatment when targeted with drugs to suppress its activity...
Some Sufferers Of Low-Back Pain Benefit From Bone-Marrow Grafts
A new study suggests that the type of bio-cellular grafts increasingly used by surgeons to repair damaged tissue may be useful for treating low-back pain (LBP). However, not all sufferers responded equally to the novel therapy. Results reported today at the 29th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Pain Medicine ranged from complete pain relief to no improvement...
Patients With Low Back Pain Can Be Accurately Assessed Via Telerehabilitation
A new "telerehabilitation" approach lets physical therapists assess patients with low back pain (LBP) over the Internet, with good accuracy compared with face-to-face examinations, reports a study in the journal Spine. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health...
Pain Reduction And Physiotherapy Patient Interaction Go Hand-In-Hand
How many times have you been to a physiotherapist where you've had more time in the waiting room than face-time with the physio? Well, according to University of Alberta physical therapy PhD grad Jorge Fuentes, how a physiotherapist interacts with a patient verbally, through eye contact, body language and listening skills is almost as important as the treatment itself...
Steroid Injection Therapy For Back Pain May Increase Risk Of Spinal Fracture
Most aging adults will experience back pain or a spinal disorder at some time in their life. In fact, about 25.8 million visits were made to physicians' offices due to primary back problems. Treatment focuses on pain relief and is available in both non-surgical (medication or physical therapy) and surgical forms...
Pathologic Findings Following Outbreak Of Fungal Infections Associated With Contaminated Steroid Injections
Investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) describe pathologic findings from 40 case reports of fungal infection in patients who had been given contaminated epidural, paraspinal, or intra-articular (into joints) steroid injections and correlate these findings with clinical and laboratory data...